But even he will be in the shadow of Knight, the Villa defender who left for the Reebok in August and who is a massive 6ft 6in.

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Carew believes Knight will be back with a point to prove after his £4 million move to Lancashire but the striker feels manager Martin O’Neill made the right decision to sell him.

Fans’ favourite Carew believes the defenders brought in to replace Knight have done so much already to improve the team.

Like the Villa faithful, Carew feels the arrival of Richard Dunne and James Collins has proved a match made in heaven so far with O’Neill even suggesting he might finally have found a replacement for “Lionheart” defender Martin Laursen. Carew said: “It’s a big game for Zat and it’s back at Villa Park. He is maybe the tallest defender in the Premier League so I will have a big challenge in the air.

“I know he is at least a couple of inches bigger than me so it will be an aerial battle.”

Carew feels that the new centre-backs are the difference in Villa’s form this season, even if that undermines Knight.

“The ones who have come in for him have done even better so I guess it was the right decision for the team,” Carew said.

“But I’m happy for him that he’s playing in a team who can do things and he will be looking forward to the challenge.”

Carew was disappointed with Villa’s 2-1 defeat at Upton Park in midweek and says it is vital they get back to winning ways tomorrow, particularly with the home fans once again acting as a 12th man.

“We’re at home and we have to win. These are the games we have to win if we want to reach our goals,’’ added Carew.

“It was very disappointing for us that we could not get at least a point in midweek. We didn’t play like we should in general.

“We had a point in our grasp, a point is a point away, and even though we had one player less after Habib Beye was sent off we should have managed to avoid conceding any more goals in the last minute.”

Carew, still with only one Premier League strike of his own this season so far, added: “We conceded in added time in both halves and that is very disappointing,

“It is one of the challenges we have to work on however if we want to reach our goals.”

Villa defeated Bolton 4-2 last season with two goals from Gabby Agbonlahor, one from Ashley Young and a Kevin Davies own-goal.

Davies then made amends with a goal at the right end to add to an Elmander consolation strike.

Carew added: “The whole team is still looking forward to the Bolton game. It’s a match we have to win and show we can do better.”